Protect Your Gums and the Rest Will Follow (Infographic)

We’ve all seen the ads and heard the warnings: take care of your teeth or face the threat of gingivitis! This leaves people with a vague understanding of gingivitis, with many just assuming that it leaves you with inflamed gums. The fact is, gingivitis can have far worse consequences that span your entire body. This is why keeping your gums healthy will positively affect other aspects of your overall health.

The Main Stages of Gum Disease

Gingivitis is often thought of as synonymous with gum disease, but it’s actually just one type. Here’s a breakdown of what it means to have gingivitis or periodontitis:

Gingivitis

When your dentist informs you that you have a light case of gum disease, gingivitis is what they’re referring to. As the mildest form of gum disease, symptoms of gingivitis are definitely bothersome but can get progressively worse if left untreated. Here are common symptoms of gingivitis:

Red, swollen gums

Gums that bleed easily

Teeth still in place, but gums are affected

The most important thing to keep in mind when you have gingivitis is that it can rapidly devolve into periodontitis. To keep this from happening, it’s important to exercise thorough oral hygiene in addition to working with your dentist to treat the problem. While the effects of gingivitis are manageable, the major threat is that it can lead to a far worse condition: periodontitis.

Periodontitis

When gingivitis becomes periodontitis, the symptoms are exponentially worse. Your previously swollen gums are now painful, bleeding, and can result in missing teeth. Breath can have a noticeably bad odor due to the excess of bacteria in the mouth. Check out the following infographic to see some of the effects of gum disease, and why treating it should be a high-priority for patients.

Dr. K. Ashraf Can Treat your Gum Disease in Waterloo, Ontario

With experience treating a wide range of dental ailments, Dr. Ashraf can provide reliable treatment for your gum disease. Better yet, Dr. Ashraf can provide the tools and knowledge you need to prevent gingivitis altogether. The first step to treating gum disease is to contact us and make an appointment so Dr. Ashraf can assess your unique condition. At that point, he’ll provide the treatments that will eliminate gum disease and restore your oral health. Find out how today!

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During this difficult time, we are trying to do our part during the COVID-19 crisis. We are continuing to see patients with dentofacial emergencies. This means as one of the few practices remaining open during this pandemic, we are treating patients with emergencies from our fellow dental colleagues, in the Waterloo and Wellington regions (Waterloo-Kitchener-Cambridge and Guelph and surrounding townships)
We hope to assist and help as many people as we can. We also hope this will reduce the number of patients that are visiting hospitals that can be treated by us, thus freeing up time and room for the hospitals and slowing the spread of this virus.
Some additional steps our practice has taken to slow down the spread of the virus and "flatten the curve" are:
- Sanitation of common areas such as the front entry doors and the waiting room in between every patient
- Appointments are spread out so that the waiting area only has one patient at a time
- All front desk staff are wearing masks
- State of the art air purifiers (Surgically Clean Air Units x5 in total)
- Patients receive gloves upon entering the clinic
And of course we have all required PPE protocol set as a standard by the Royal College of Dental Surgeons and the Province of Ontario.
During this time we all need to help each other and do our part, only then can we pull through this quicker and return to a more happy, thankful and prosperous society.
Wishing you all the best of health,
From our family to yours.